Blake Griffin Says the LA Clippers Switch Their Defense Every Game

Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro and star Blake Griffin don’t appear to see eye-to-eye when it comes to the team’s struggling defense. Griffin claims that the coach changes the defensive approach on a game-by-game basis, leading to inconsistency. Per ESPN: “They are the fourth-worst team in defending the 3-pointer, allowing teams to shoot 37.8 percent, and are letting teams hit close to 50 percent from 3-point range in their 22 losses. ‘Our bigs are getting stretched out a little bit,’ Del Negro said. ‘They have to have a little sense of urgency in closing out. Some guys can make that adjustment, and some guys are struggling with that but drilled it again today. That’s obviously an area of concern.’ Clippers forward Blake Griffin disagreed with Del Negro. ‘It depends on our defensive strategy and our defensive principles for that game,’ Griffin said. ‘We switch them every single game. I don’t see that, no, but I’m biased.’ Griffin, however, did think the Clippers had the ability to turn around their defense before the playoffs begin next month. ‘Our main focus of practice and our theme of practice has been defensively making sure we’re executing our game plan,” Griffin said. “Because like I said, we switch it up every game, depending on who we’re playing and who has the ball and who’s a threat for them.’ After the Clippers’ 101-72 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, Griffin said he wanted his team to get to the point where it didn’t have to adjust to every opponent. ‘We want our identity to be a defensive team,’ Griffin said. ‘We don’t want to have to make adjustments for every single team and switch things up but to make teams adjust to us and the way we play.’”